Dago’s Landscape - Landscaping

DagosLandscape

Hello everyone! My name is Dagoberto and I am a landscaper since the age of 16 when I started mowing lawns. I now do full outdoor remodel design and construction. We also do grading and excavation.

How has anyone else had difficulty having staffing issues? Finding good help is super hard to find for us now a days in San Diego…

any tips on how to find the best talent and retain them will truly help.

Thanks in advance!

ArvinC

Hi @DagosLandscape , welcome to the Community, Dagoberto! 👋 It's awesome to hear how you went from mowing lawns at 16 to now taking on full outdoor remodels, design, construction, grading, and excavation.

Finding and retaining reliable help is such an important question, especially as you're growing and taking on larger projects. Rather than just giving you general advice, I'd love to connect you with some fellow pros in the landscaping space who may be able to share what's worked for their teams.

Tagging a few recently active landscaping pros: @ARHLandscaping @Biofoliadesign01 @ChillyCook @FinishingTouches @golivier_turf100 @growluck @jorge_landscaping @Keyto28 @LandscapingJjax_2026 @ShanezatP3 @TopChops @Turk @YardLady84 and @Shanez_Padgett .

For those of you who've built a team, where have you had the most success finding good people, and what's helped you retain your best employees?

Glad to have you here, Dagoberto!

ShanezatP3

Thanks for the tag @ArvinC! Pleasure to meet you @DagosLandscape! I own a full service landscaping company in SC doing commercial land care, Residential installs, and land development. We currently have about 40 employees.

It definitely is tough finding and retaining good talent, it’s often a conversation my management and I have weekly lol. I unfortunately haven’t fully cracked the code yet, and while my answers can be cliche, I think it’s always helpful to hear the basics/cliches to help draw you back/encourage you.

-I think the best ways to find talent is truly connecting with people. In your circumstance this may be tougher, but as I worked in the industry for several years prior to starting my company, 75% of my employees are people I actually worked with before. While this may be tougher for you, I think the biggest point is genuinely building relationships. Not doing it for your own gain, but with the understanding that planting seeds and watering those seeds can yield great fruit. My general manager I hired, I met 7+ years ago and never would’ve thought I could afford him, but was able to many years later. In your interviews and conversations, help design the vision of what you want your company to be to help potential employees see the picture and believe in it as much as you do.
-Understand that every person you hire will not be the best employee in the world and honestly try to ratio/balance your workforce with that intention. For instance, to every experienced employee we have, there’s 1-3 under them and the experienced employees are partly responsible for raising up the folks under them. And yes, it’s a process, but there will have to be hiring and firing through your entire time you’re running your company. Unfortunately, it’s part of doing business and while you’ll get better at finding better candidates than others, there’s still going to be hiccups and new ways to strengthen how you hire good people!
-Check with your current employees! You’d be surprised in how many of your employees will also bring along their friends and other coworkers. In fact, One of my best foreman’s was a friend of a previous employee and actually did better and does significantly better than his friend!
-Loyalty is a two-way street!!! Especially when you’re around blue collar workers. Retention is going to be hard wherever or whatever you do. Everyone wants what you have and bigger companies will pay more $$$ just to get their way. However… your employees pay attention to the person you are and how you are as a leader. I’ve had it both ways where I’ve failed as a leader and people leave and I’ve also been kind and intentional in my love towards employees and have retained employees that were offered double what they were making with me. I think that it boils down to the person you are and who will mesh well with you. Regardless, you’re going to have some people who don’t care and will leave either way. But, for the special ones, be intentional in your leadership and it will pay off. Soon enough you’ll have employees bringing you gifts for you kids, food, and will truly care about you.

-Benefits aren’t just insurance and 401ks, it’s also giving employees the picture of happiness and passion in life and work. Build them up and show them how much you care in as many ways as you can.

Last but not least, you are going to continue running into this problem. If running a business was easy, everyone would have a successful one. What matters is that when you’re frustrated and get knocked down, that you persevere and get back up. NO ONE outside of business owners understands the stress that comes with carrying the weight of being an employer, however, it’s because of the stress and tough times that we can enjoy the moments of victory when they come. I truly hope this helped and would really love to connect and follow along your journey in San Diego!

ArvinC

Thank you so much for jumping in, @ShanezatP3 ! This is incredibly thoughtful and helpful advice. Really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience and what you've learned from building such a large team! 🙌